Candy Land

A classic children's board game. It was first made way back in 1948 by Eleanor Abbott while she was in a hospital in San Diego recovering from polio. Kids who played the game in the hospital enjoyed it and told her she should submit the game to the Milton Bradley Company, which published it for the first time in 1949. It was a gigantic hit for Milton Bradley. Since the company was bought out by Hasbro, they're the current manufacturer of the game.

Usually, it's the first board game a child will play, as it is one of the most simple -- it requires neither the ability to read or count. Basically, you move your piece around the game board through Candy Land, a magical and happy land which appears to be made entirely of candy. You get to visit places like the Gumdrop Mountains, the Peanut Brittle House, and the Ice Cream Sea, and you can get trapped in places like the Lollipop Woods and the Molasses Swamp.

Instead of using dice to move around, players draw cards upon which are printed colors corresponding to the colors of the squares of the board. If you draw a red card, you move up to the next red square. If you draw a card with two red squares, you get the equivalent of two turns. Some modern versions of the game use a spinner instead of cards. The first person to get to Candy Castle is declared the winner.

There isn't really a lot of strategy involved in Candy Land, but it does help teach children how to do things like recognize colors and take turns. Particularly bright and ruthless children, envisioning all those sugary trees, buildings, and people, may plot detailed invasion tactics...

Candy Land is one of the most entertaining board games in existence. Game play is deceivingly simple. Made for 2 to 4 players, the goal is to move your little, red, yellow, green, or blue game piece from one end of the winding, colored path to the other.

Instead of rolling dice, which is the average means of determining spaces in board games you draw from the top of a stack of cards. On each card is one or two colored squares corresponding directly to the squares on the board. If you draw a card that has one purple square you move forward to the next purple square. If you draw a card with two orange squares, you move forward two orange squares on the board.

The path is made up of three different categories of squares. The first is your basic colored square. These squares are the most abundant, and more often than not, you will land on them. The second type is what I like to call the sticky square. Cleverly disguised as your average color square with a meaningless black dot, these squares, if lit upon, will keep you from moving forward until you draw a card of corresponding color. No mercy is shown for those who are stuck here as others easily pass them by.

However, it is not as easy to reach the end as it sounds. The third and most annoying square is the character square. There are 6 character squares on the board, each residing next to their correponding character, which illustrate the otherwise empty spaces. If you draw a character card you are automatically transported to that square. This can be good if you draw Queen Frostine on the first turn, because you are automatically transported to near the end. On the other hand, if you are one square away from the finish, and you draw the dreaded Plumpy card you get transported all the way back to near the beginning of the board and have to work your way back.

This game, although clearly marked on the front as "A child's first game" is indubitably fun for all ages. You can also create exciting variations of the game for that extra wild party.

Candy Land: version Doomhammer is one such variation. A very violent variation. To play all you need is a home version of Candy Land and 2-4 warm bodies. The more the merrier.

The rules are fairly simple. Choose your game pieces and begin play as you normally would. If you want you can modify the rules as you see fit, just make sure you can complete the game with a fair amount of spare time left at the end.

The reason is this. As soon as the winner lands on the last space, he must grab his/her game piece off of the board and keep a hold of it at all costs. The rest of the players are to then bite, kick, pull hair, even scratch at the winner to get a hold of the game piece which they are harboring. For added flavor, you can make up specialty moves, such as a doomhammer.

Also for a little bit of extra fun, if you have the proper amount of players you can divide into teams for the doomhammer portion of the game.

This game is best played in an open area away from breakable things, and is also not meant to harm or maim players, just for good clean fun.

For players under age 17 we reccomend adult supervision.